Filter to

Judy Parkinson’s collection of mnemonics includes rhymes, acronyms and curious phrases such as 'My Very Exotic Mistress Just Served Us Noodles’ (order of the planets): all of them learning devices for subjects ranging from spelling to the periodic table (the latter sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's 'I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General').

To discover how the rose has insinuated itself into the consciousness and the gardens of so many ages and cultures, Jennifer Potter begins by tracing the flower’s origins in the wild briars of the northern hemisphere, then examines its appearance in Christian iconography and other traditions; its development in early modern European gardens; the plant’s progress in China, the Middle East and North America; its role in medicine and perfumery; and the hybridization and changing fashions of modern roses.

For those who know their Tudors from their Habsburgs and their Sea Beggars from their Silver Fleets, this quiz book mixes straightforward questions with activities such as pictograms, Latin crosswords and famous mazes. Arranged in no particular chronological order, the roughly 300 questions cover the entirety of human history and range from general knowledge to the fiendishly obscure.

On 25 August 1939, nine days before France declared war on Germany, the staff of the Louvre began history’s greatest museum evacuation. The artworks went first to the châteaux of the Loire valley, then moved on to escape the advancing Nazis – Mona Lisa made six nail-biting journeys to new hide-outs. Here, Gerri Chanel tells the story of the curators’ battles to save the Louvre collections, from the first exodus to the homecoming in the summer of 1945.

The French Wars of Religion, fought between Huguenots and Catholics, spanned most of the reign of Elizabeth I, whose provision of English armed forces perpetuated the conflict. With an emphasis on military history and visual sources, Heap’s study establishes the scale and importance of England’s intervention and offers a re-evaluation of Henri IV as a military leader.

Aimed at armchair readers and travellers, this book offers a chronological history of the Mediterranean from ancient Rome – the only state to control its entire coastline – to the two world wars and the Middle East conflict. It records naval battles between Christians and Ottomans, and the rise and fall of the maritime empires of Genoa and Venice, while also acknowledging the role of the sea in trade, tourism and migration.

This introduction outlines the history and practices of Freemasonry, from its legendary origins to modern incarnations around the world. The author argues that, although the Craft has frequently been viewed with suspicion, Masonic ideals are a force for good.

In May 1978 Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser visited Israel on the 30th anniversary of its independence. Fraser’s account of the trip, forgotten in a cupboard for decades, describes their visits to historic sites and meetings with Shimon Peres and Jackie Kennedy. It also offers an affectionate portrait of Pinter’s foibles, and his coming to terms with his Jewish heritage.

Coromandel is what Europeans once called south-east India. In this fusion of history and travelogue, the bestselling author of Ashoka explores the region south of the river Narmada, meeting historians, gurus and local people, to unlock the mysteries of its extraordinary past.

Slightly off-mint.

Concentrating on the late fourth and early fifth centuries, Vuolanto’s study examines how the rise of Christianity and, with it, asceticism raised issues of sexuality, marriage, family and celibacy, challenging the traditional norms and practices of a culture in which to remain unmarried had not been an option.

Examining the experience of charity and the complex motivations that prompted charitable endeavour in the period c.1100 to 1650, this volume of 13 essays includes case studies relating to England, France and the Low Countries. The topics under discussion include charity towards lepers; bequests for the poor in 15th-century Norwich wills; monastic poor relief in late medieval England; and Huguenot charity in London.

Forming an overview of ecclesiastical history in West Wales, the contributions in this volume cover not only the religious movements and controversies associated with St Davids but also the Church’s role in education and the revival of Welsh cultural identity.

Commissioned by the Hospitallers to raise money for rebuilding, Guillaume Caoursin’s eyewitness account of the Ottoman siege of their main convent on Rhodes became a 15th-century bestseller in a Europe hungry for news of Christian victories. This volume presents a new critical edition of the Descriptio, with modern English translation en face, a substantial introduction and translations of related documents.

Michael Korda paints a picture of day-to-day life in London at the time of the Battle of France, drawing on his own childhood experiences. He weaves this with the detailed story of the Dunkirk evacuation, which mitigated the blow of military defeat. Using maps of the developing military action, he dissects successes and failures of French, German and British leadership, including the Vice-Admiral whose contingency plans played a crucial role. American-cut pages

Throughout the 20th century regular outbursts of revolutionary fervour brought long-standing regimes to an end and reshaped societies around the world. More than 20 such moments are featured here, from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty, to the uprisings that swept eastern Europe during and after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Housed in a sturdy slipcase, the book contains 15 removable facsimile documents, including the proclamation of Tsar Nicholas’s abdication and a revolutionary poster from Cuba.

While the creation of international tribunals to try heads of state for crimes against humanity are usually hailed as new, breakthrough victories for human rights, this study argues that such trials have a long history. In cases from Charles I in 1649 to Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, in 2012, Laughland examines the constitutional issues raised by political trials and ‘special tribunals’, discussing the nature of the Prosecution and the often ignored Defence as well as procedural shortcomings.

The most significant people, events and works of literature from the Victoria era are introduced chronologically in this concise account of the social and economic changes that shaped the nation.

‘Oh, if the queen were a man, she would like to go and give those horrid Russians ... such a beating!’ wrote Victoria; while in Russia, Alexander III described the queen as a ‘pampered, sentimental, selfish old woman’. In this study of the hostility between the British and Russian royal courts, Coryne Hall begins with the disastrous marriage of Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saarfeld, Victoria’s ‘Aunt Julie’, to Grand Duke Constantine in 1795, then traces 60 years of the queen’s fear and distrust of the Romanov dynasty.

When a Crusade was launched against them early in the 13th century, the Cathars were dominant in the Languedoc region and had won widespread support from nobility and peasants. Martin explains the movement’s development, the fractious political context in which it flourished and the principles of simplicity, equality and non-violence which lay at the heart of the Cathars’ heretical teachings and their implacable opposition to the Catholic Church. Second edition.

Here, the author considers how the BBC balanced its broadcasting output during the Second World War to include news reporting, morale boosting content, advice for the Home Front and government messaging, and why it chose to eschew propaganda.

Slightly off-mint.

The pivotal year of the First World War was marked by a series of events with far-reaching repercussions, from the Battle of the Somme and the Easter Rising to the assassination of Rasputin and the election of President Woodrow Wilson. Drawing on military, social and cultural sources, this history goes beyond the Western Front to explore crucial developments in the war at sea, in the intelligence war, and in the Balkans, East Africa and Asia.

Hamilton’s reappraisal of Roosevelt’s wartime leadership continues with this second volume in his trilogy, assessing the clashes between FDR and Churchill throughout 1943. As battle escalated in North Africa and Italy, a strategic difference between the two men emerged, with the president challenging Churchill’s decision to widen the war in the Mediterranean and overruling his attempts to abandon the D-Day landings.

In 1501, when William Dunbar described it as ‘the flower of Cities all’, London was already a significant capital city, a great port and a hub of culture and commerce. In 1666, the Great Fire destroyed almost all of the old walled city and environs. Drawing on archaeological, written and pictorial records, Wynn Jones traces London’s history from Ancient Britons, through Roman, Saxon, medieval, Tudor and Stuart times, to the aftermath of the Fire. The book concludes with four walks for rediscovering the pre-1666 city.

Drawing on his experience in politics, former MP Kenneth Baker examines how the Seven Deadly Sins have been depicted in art and literature through the ages. Using excerpts from plays, poetry and fiction, he discusses the sins, reflects on their continuing presence in today’s more secular society, and concludes that life would be banal and unchallenging without them. The extensive illustrations include works by old masters such as Botticelli and Bosch, press photographs, and cartoons by Gillray, Rowlandson, Bateman, Peter Brookes and Dave Brown.

Luke Owen Pike (1835–1915) was a barrister and an historical researcher in the Public Records Office, and his history of crime from Roman times to 1874 draws on his legal expertise and his access to historical documents. In great detail, he shows how ‘the definition of crime was being gradually evolved during the slow march of history’. Reprint edition. No jackets.

St George is England’s patron saint, yet many other nations, from Hungary to Ethiopia, consider him their own. This compact guide reviews what is known about this early martyr, and traces his battle with the dragon to legendary pre-Christian heroes.

In a disaster commemorated by one of William McGonagall’s famously bad poems, engineer Thomas Bouch's Tay Bridge collapsed when a train was passing over it during a storm in 1879, killing everyone on board. This revision of David Swinfen's 1994 study of the event analyses the evidence and technical studies to answer the still-contested questions of why the bridge failed and how many people lost their lives.

The Third Crusade united European leaders in an expedition to reclaim the Holy Land from Saladin. It is particularly well-documented, with contemporary chronicles surviving from both sides of the conflict, some of which were written by men present in the region. First published in 1889, this compilation of translated sources juxtaposes accounts by different authors and illustrates how events such as the siege of Acre were viewed at the time.

This series presents engaging, academically credible biographies, written from an explicitly historical perspective.

Volume 1 traces the development of theatre from its origins in Egyptian and Middle Eastern religious ritual, to Greek and Roman drama.

The story of Sigmund Freud and his family’s experience of WWII, from the annexing of Austria in 1938 to subsequent raids on their home and their dramatic and dangerous escape.

Arriving in Britain from Maryland after the Battle of Waterloo, the four Caton sisters took London society by storm. Based on unpublished letters, this glorious book charts their fortunes against a glittering backdrop of money, politics and power. It tells how each overcame prejudice to forge her own destiny: Emily managed their estates back home, Bess triumphed on the London stock market, Marianne married Wellington's brother, and Louisa became Duchess of Leeds and a friend of Queen Victoria.

Slightly off-mint.

Published in 1851, eleven years after he famously wrote that 'property is theft' (in What is Property?), this work sets out Proudhon's radical vision of a society in which authority is decentralized among communes or cooperatives, with free contracts replacing laws. Reprint of the 1923 edition, translated by John Beverley Robinson.